Letters in the editor’s mailbag

Monday

Mar 26, 2018 at 12:01 AM

White privilege holds America back

In response to the March 22 Commentary article headlined “Exceptionally presumptuous,” it seems to me “American exceptionalism” goes hand-in-hand with white privilege in general — and white Anglo-Saxon Protestant male privilege in particular.

Our country was founded as a white racist nation, as established in the Constitution. Just look at who was allowed to vote and who were — by law — slaves. We’ve been working on becoming “a more perfect union” ever since.

The reality of institutional inequality has created a form of cognitive dissonance among many white conservatives in this country, particularly those in the Republican Party base. It’s manifest in their terror of losing their white privilege — which they claim doesn’t exist, yet is obvious to everyone else in the world.

That dissonance is manifested in many ways. One is in their inability to “follow the money.” They actually believe the poor and minorities get more free stuff from the government than does the 1 percent.

For many of those people, the election of the nation’s first black president is an existential threat to their sense of reality. In their minds, he’s not supposed to exist. Even when he offers policies that were Republican policies in the past, such as promoting private sector employment, they reject his efforts out of hand.

If we ever become a truly merit-based society, America will be exceptional.

In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do to create equal opportunity and equal justice under the law for all our citizens.

Charles Dalton

Eugene

‘Clueless’ cartoon crossed the line

Once upon a time there was a code of decency in our lives. We just didn’t cross that line. It was a matter of pride.

For example, graffiti wasn’t sprayed on artwork, bricks or wood. Now that’s gone by the wayside.

Another example: Out of decency and respect, we never went “after the children” in news and political areas.

On March 14, The Register-Guard chose to publish a political cartoon by Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that crossed the line. It showed President Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, holding a “bill” signed by 47 supposedly intelligent Republicans (I know, I know, that’s an oxymoron) that stated, “Your Dad’s clueless so ignore him.”

How hurtful was that to the president’s daughters? What message did it send to all our children?

That adults can disrespect and ridicule a father-child relationship — in front of the whole world — and get away with it?

It turned my stomach. Luckovich shouldn’t have been able to have the cartoon published.

Where were his editors? And where were The Register-Guard’s?

Penny Lee McGee

Eugene

Israel’s problem lies with its voters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on the eve of his re-election that he opposed a two-state solution, confirming what objective observers have long known:

Expansion of illegal Israeli settlements has essentially destroyed any genuine prospects for peace.

Though he retracted the statement under pressure, there’s no reason to think he supports peace when he’s consistently pushed settlement expansion.

A highly critical column by Israeli apologist Thomas Friedman said Netanyahu’s speech to Congress wasn’t just an insult to the United States but also a transparent attempt to use Israeli influence over Congress to provoke an unnecessary and unwinnable war with Iran.

Such actions are leading other prominent opinion makers to openly question the fallacy that the interests of Israel (as defined by right-wing extremists in both countries) align with those of the United States.

It’s important to recognize that the problem isn’t Netanyahu, but prevailing Israeli attitudes.

Before he recanted his candid admission, and a racist statement about Arab voters, Israelis voted overwhelmingly to support a race-baiting warmonger who actively opposed a just settlement with Palestine.

It’s clearly time to question Israel’s “special relationship” with the United States. Any fair-minded person should applaud President Obama’s suggestion that we may not continue to blindly support Israel’s chronic violations of international law.

Far from “abandoning Israel,” forceful U.S. action may be the only thing that will save it from the consequences of its own actions.

Let’s start by ending our annual $3 billion taxpayer subsidy of its military in “foreign aid.”

Rick Staggenborg, Founder Soldiers For Peace International

Coos Bay

Look to the library for online service

Thank you for the helpful March 22 article headlined “Streaming TV choices expand, but can you save?” which provided local consumers with comparisons of emerging entertainment services and their costs.

Here’s one more option to consider: Access your online entertainment at zero out-of-pocket cost through the Eugene Public Library.

The library offers free streaming of movies and TV through a new service called Hoopla.

We also provide free eBooks, audio books, music and magazines via popular services including Library2Go, Freegal, and Zinio (that includes free access to Consumer Reports, to help with other buying decisions).

Additionally, the library offers free use of premium online services such as Ancestry.com (genealogy), Mango Languages (online interactive lessons) and Live Homework Help (professional tutors).

All those and more are available at the Eugene Public Library website: www.eugene-or.gov/library.

The bottom line for smart shoppers?

When you go looking for entertainment or information, check with your local library first.

Connie J. Bennett, Director

Eugene Public Library

Eugene

Henry led the way on integration

I moved to the Eugene area in 1971. Having previously admired City Manager Charles Henry’s principled, effective and courageous leadership in University City, Mo., I was delighted when, in 1975, he was chosen from 120 candidates to be Eugene’s city manager.

Mark Baker’s March 23 tribute to him (“Integration champion”) reawakened my memories of the 1960s and early ’70s, when the country was on the edge of heading in a far better direction.

I met Henry when my former wife and I chose in 1965 to buy a home in University City — the only truly racially integrated municipality in the segregated, volatile St. Louis and St. Louis County area.

At his urging, we formed neighborhood groups that hindered predatory blockbusting real-estate agents from panicking whites into selling their homes at a loss, and that called attention to bank and insurance firm redlining practices that denied blacks services or charged exorbitant fees.

University City could easily have turned into another Ferguson, but with an enlightened City Council and Henry’s leadership, we kept it from happening.

People of all ages — but especially young people — led the struggle against racism, social injustice, environmental shortsightedness, economic exploitation and imperialistic warmongering.

It was a time of now-almost-extinct hippie values. Megacorporate-controlled media have, with supercilious contempt, mocked and trivialized those times, but those of us who were there know better.

That powerful, vivid flash of truthfulness and justice still glows within us. I’m happy Henry, now 94, has been recognized for his part in the struggle.

Jerome Garger

Yachats

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